Da Capo is a musical term in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, meaning from the beginning (literally from the head). It is often abbreviated D.C. It is a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 or publisher's directive to repeat

Repetition (music)

Repetition is important in music, where sounds or sequences are often repeated. One often stated idea is that repetition should be in balance with the initial statements and variations in a piece. It may be called restatement, such as the restatement of a theme...

 the previous part of music, often used to save space. In small pieces this might be the same thing as a repeat, but in larger works D.C. might occur after one or more repeats of small sections

Section (music)

In music, a section is "a complete, but not independent musical idea". Types of sections include the introduction or intro, exposition, recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, conclusion, coda or outro, fadeout, bridge or interlude...

, indicating a return to the very beginning. The resulting structure

Musical form

The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...

 of the piece is generally in ternary form

Ternary form

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...

. Sometimes the composer describes the part to be repeated, for example: Menuet da capo. In opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, where an aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

 of this structure is called a da capo aria

Da capo aria

The da capo aria is a musical form, which was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and oratorio...

, the repeated section is often adorned with grace note

Grace note

A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. When occurring by itself, a single grace note normally indicates the intention of either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura...

s.

Variations of the direction are:

• Da Capo al fine (D.C. al fine): repeat from beginning to the end (or up to the word fine, should that appear at the end of the passage, movement &c. - the word "fine" itself signifying '"end" / "ending").(Da Capo: Repeat from the beginning)
• Da Capo al coda (D.C. al Coda): repeat from beginning to an indicated place and then play the tail part (the coda
  Coda (music)
  Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
  
  ).

D.C. al Coda is a musical direction used in sheet music. It means, literally, "dal Capo al Coda," or "from the beginning, to the tail." It directs the musician to go back and repeat the music from the beginning ("Capo"), and to continue playing until one reaches the first coda

Coda (music)

Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...

 symbol. Upon reaching the first coda, one is to skip to the second coda symbol (which signifies the ending of the piece), and continue playing until the end. The portion of the piece from the second coda to the end is often referred to as the "coda" of the piece, or quite literally as the "end."

See also

• Coda
  Coda (music)
  Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
  
  
• Repeat sign
• Dal segno
  Dal Segno
  In music notation, Dal segno is used as a navigation marker. From Italian for "from the sign," D.S. appears in sheet music and instructs a musician to repeat a passage starting from the sign shown at right, sometimes called the "segno" in English.Two common variants:*D.S...